LAGUNA NIGUEL, Kimberly Salter, past president of the California National Organization for Women and the Orange County chapter of NOW: Jan. 22, 1973, was a victorious day for women in the United States. The Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a woman, in consultation with her physician, has a constitutionally protected right to choose abortion in the early stages of pregnancy. Many longtime feminists felt they had finally arrived after trudging up a long, long hill. Little did we know, on that day, things would almost immediately start to go backward.

While the right to have an abortion is federal law, getting one in the U.S. in 2013 may be more difficult for the average woman than at any other time in history.

In a time when white male politicians say that a woman's body can resist pregnancy in the case of “legitimate rape” or that pregnancies conceived in rape are “intended by God,” many may look at their calendars to verify that we are indeed in the year 2013.

In 2011, 92 abortion restrictions were passed in 24 states. In 2012, 19 states enacted 43 provisions restricting access to abortion services. So as we “celebrate” (and I use the term hesitantly) the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, does anyone know where one can obtain an abortion in a timely fashion without mortgaging a house? This era of state restrictions on abortions began in 1992 with the Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

Although the court upheld the basic right to abortion, it also expanded the ability of the states to enact their own restrictions.

For 20 years, anti-choice politicians have passed laws chipping away at Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose what happens to her own body. These politicians work tirelessly to curtail access to abortion at every turn. This is happening even though statistics tell us abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the U.S. Less than 0.5 percent of women experience a complication, and the risk of death associated with the procedure is about one-tenth that associated with childbirth.

In California a woman has the fundamental right to make her own reproductive choices. She has the right to bear a child or to choose to obtain an abortion prior to the viability of the fetus or when abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the woman.

These rights are stated in the 2002 Reproductive Privacy Act. They will stand in the state even if the Supreme Court decision is overturned. If you are a victim of sexual assault and go to an emergency room for treatment, California law requires that hospitals provide you with information about emergency contraception. You do not need to talk to your parents, the police, or anyone else before you can be given EC after a sexual assault.

In a perfect world there would be no need for abortions, women would not be sexually assaulted, and children would have no need to fear their own family members. But that isn't the world we live in. We must protect those who are vulnerable and put an end to all types of violence.

So 40 years later, the struggle to preserve access to abortion is even more daunting than the fight to legalize it was.

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